Is winter here and I heat most of the house with wood. I have cords of wood left from hurricane Isabel so I bring several wheelbarrow loads of wood in to fill the woodbox. Yesterday I was bringing in wood from a tree a neighbor took down last week, the one he was getting taken down for free that cost him $300 to get the cherry picker fixed, $150 to get it winched out of the muddy ditch after he broke $130 of rope trying to get it out, $250 damage to the fence he dropped the fence on and $1,545 damage to the car he dropped the tree on. But the labor was free... Anyhow, I had some of the new wood stacked in the back porch and had taken some pieces inside to burn. There are two sliding doors to get outside, I never have both open at the same time and when bringing wood in I put both ferts in the cage just for safety. But this time was only going from the unheated porch to the wood box. Later on I went searching for RePete all over the house but didn't find him. I looked at all the hiding places he frequents but no sign. I also searched the porch and did not find him. After several searches I came to realize he was not in the house and must be outside. But I recalled my moves several times and know for sure I closed the sliders almost as I opened them on every passage and RePete was no where to be seen, as he was now! I went to bed hoping he would come to the bed in a while, like he usually does, but that didn't happen. Morning came and no RePete. I searched again, looked out the windows for that white blob but no sighting. I went to the porch and heard this rustling of news papers. Out from the box of old news papers came RePete! That little chit got out onto the porch without my seeing him and spent the night in the cold unheated space using newspapers as blankets to keep warm. Very resourceful to say the least. He was so very happy to see me and came running right away. I was so happy to see him I only dipped him twice in boiling tar and feathers instead of 3 times. He was most glad to get back to his cage and get some chow down. None the worse for wear he survived like a champ. Now I will have to be much more careful knowing RePete has escape artist capabilities I hadn't seen before. Also will have to mend my own ways on being too trusting which could be a disaster for the both of us. Errors happen, but am glad this was only an easy lesson. Aarrow Ranch Aviation Rev. J Gordon Bengtson 7302 Hunterbrook Drive, Suite 100 Mechanicsville, Va. 23111 USA [Posted in FML issue 5131]